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ffHERE are few mythological legends 
more striking and picturesque than 
$~Cl that which relates to the nine daugh- 
ters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. In the early 
ages of the world, when it was the custom to 
assign a celestial cause to every extraordinary 
effect, the powers of song, memory, invention, 
skill, etc., were supposed to be excited by cer- 
tain goddesses denominated Muses. From the 
period of the earliest tradition, these fair im- 
mortals had their seats in Pieria on Mount 



Olympus and in Boeotia on Mount Helicon. 
According to Hesiod they were born on Olym- 
pus, near the pinnacle on which Jupiter (Zeus 
in the Greek) was enthroned, whence they vis- 
ited Helicon to bathe in Hippocrene and cel- 
ebrate their choral dances around the altar on 
the crest of the sacred mountain. In Homer, 
as in later authors, they are described as sing- 
ing festive songs at the banquets of the gods, 
and conferring on mortals the gift of poetry. 
Though occupied only with the gentler and 
more graceful arts, the sweet-voiced deities 
were not without their sterner traits. They 
doomed Thamyris, who had presumed to excel 
them in music, to blindness ; stripped the Si- 
rens, who had dared to contest the laurel with 
them, of their wings ; and for a similar offence 



metamorphosed the nine daughters of King- 
Pierios into wild birds. The Muses were wor- 
shipped with libations of water, or milk and 
honey, had temples built in their honor, and 
were represented each with particular attri- 
butes in works of art. Besides the usual epi- 
thets common to all goddesses, and derived 
from beauty and costume, the Muses were 
styled Sweet-speaking, Perfect-speaking, Honey- 
breathing, etc., etc. Hesiod was the first to state 
the names of all the nine, by which they are 
generally designated : Clio, the muse of history ; 
Etiterpe, of lyric poetry ; Thalia, of comedy ; 
Melpomene, of tragedy ; Terpsichore, of choral 
dance and song ; Erato, of erotic verse ; Poly- 
hymnia, of the sublime hymn ; Urania, of as- 
tronomy ; and Calliope, of epic poetry. 



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Is the patron deity of Astronomy. 

A circlet of stars sparkles upon her 
brow, and her azure robe is looped with 
a crescent. Her left arm rests on a celes- 
tial globe, while with a rod in her right 
hand she traces out some mystic figure. 



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hctlict 

Presides over Comedy and Epi- 
gram. She carries a grotesque 
mask in one hand, and with the other 
holds up her robe. She is also regarded 
as the patroness of husbandry and plant- 
ing. 






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fl 

& ^ Who is supposed to reign over Sa- 
cred Poetry and Eloquence, is seen 
seated, leaning her head on her left hand, 
and holding a roll of parchment in her 
right. On one side is a tripod and on 
the other a lyre. 







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The goddess of Epic Poetry, wears 
a gold diadem in her hair, and holds 
a partially unrolled manuscript in her 
hand, upon which are inscribed the open- 
ing lines of the Iliad. In her left hand 
is an ivory trumpet. 





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The muse of Marriage-feasts and 
pantomimic dancing, is shown play- 
ing on the stringed instrument named 
phorminx. Her forehead is crowned with 
roses and myrtles, and at her side is Cupid 
with a lighted torch. 



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The genius of Tragedy, is pictured 
as a queenly woman. Her emblems 

are generally a dagger and a sceptre. She 

is crowned, and wears a scarf* 



* The costume in this painting was copied from the dress 
worn by Madame Ristori in her celebrated character oiPhcedra, 
and loaned by her to Mr. Fagnani expressly for this picture. 









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The joyous muse of the choric 
Dance, and the inventor of the pipe, 
does not belie her name, which signifies 
literally, she who loves dancing. She is 
usually depicted in some mirthful attitude, 
holding a light scarf, which floats about 
her. 



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Is the muse and glory of History. 






She is seated, writing on a roll of 
parchment supported on a marble slab, 
upon which also rests the trumpet of 
Fame. She is crowned with laurels. 




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As her name denotes, is an inspirer 
of pleasure. To her is ascribed the 
invention of the tragic chorus. She is 
represented as a young maiden, holding 
two flutes in her left hand, her right rest- 
ing on a lyre. 









•AVE ever been favorite subjects with 
v-qg^gr both painter and poet, and have not un- 
frequently lent their inspiration to the 
artist who has sought to portray them worthily. 
In recent times they have given no suggestion 
more fortunate than the one that induced Mr. 
Fagnani to employ his art on the present series 
of pictures ; in which various choice types of 
American beauty are introduced to us in the 
guise of the Nine Muses. The idea of the work 
first occurred to the artist on hearing a foreigner 
remark that America afforded no examples of the 
purely classic face so often encountered in the 



Old World. To demonstrate the fallacy of this 
assertion, the artist conceived the plan of paint- 
ing the portraits of nine American ladies of ac- 
knowledged beauty, idealizing them no further 
than to give them the accessories with which 
the daughters of Mnemosyne are commonly 
represented. That Mr. Fagnani's design is as 
happy in execution as it is fresh in conception, 
will scarcely be questioned by any one who 
examines this unique Gallery of American 
Beauty. 




' N elegant essay from the pen of T. W. 
Higginson, lately read by him before 
the N. E. Women's club, depicts the 
six primary goddesses of Greece as so many 
pure and beautiful types of an ideal womanhood. 
Symbolizing the successive stages of her devel- 
opment as girl, maid, lover, wife, mother, and 
housekeeper, under the names of Artemis, 
Athena, Aphrodite, Herr, Demeter, and Hertia, 
he concludes with this magnificent prophecy : 
" Nothing shall drive me from the belief that 









there is arising in America, amid all our 
frivolities, a type of virgin womanhood, new in 
history, undescribed in fiction, from which there 
may proceed in generations yet to come, a 
priesthood more tender, a majesty more pure 
and grand, than any thing which poet ever sang, 
or temple enthroned. . . . Through a culture 
such as no other age has offered, through the 
exercise of rights never before conceded, of 
duties never yet imposed, will this heroic sister- 
hood be reared. . . . Noble forms that shall 
eclipse those ' fair humanities of old religion/ 
as, when classic architecture had reached perfec- 
tion, there rose the Gothic ; and made the Greek 
seem cold." 



In a chivalrous spirit akin to this, the cheva- 
lier Joseph Fagnani of New York refutes by 
a series of portraits of American women, the 
assertion of a foreigner that the type of beauty 
which we admire is far inferior to that of the 
Greek sculptors, and that we have not a pure- 
ly classical face among us. Never had val- 
iant knight, lifting the gauntlet in vindica- 
tion of his fair one's charms, more kindly 
favor than has met Fagnani. Ladies of the 
very highest social position have granted him 
repeated sittings. From Massachusetts to 
Louisiana, from the lakes to the gulf, each 
section has lent its loveliest to aid the artist in 
his self-imposed labor. It was no easy task to 



present nine modern beauties as the daughters 
of Mnemosyne ; to clothe the life-like portrait- 
ure of the acknowledged belle in the classic 
drapery of the old mythology ; to make each 
picture harmonize so perfectly with the peculiar 
vocation of the character represented, that the 
gazer forgets the muse is only playing a part for 
the nonce ; and at the same time to surround 
each with such an atmosphere of purity and 
dignity, that the sanctity of private life and the 
shrinking modesty of a virtuous womanhood 
should still be unprofaned. The success with 
which this has been accomplished shows a rare 
discretion and refinement of feeling on the part 
of the artist. Mr. Childs has the honor of in- 



troducing these pictures to the public. He has 
shown himself equal to the occasion, and the 
nine muses, fitly enshrined with chaste and 
elegant surroundings, have already received the 
homage of thousands. Even the critics seem 
awed to silence by this array of beauty, and we 
have been spared the comments of professional 
item hunters. The muses, each with her proper 
attribute, are arranged in a semi-circle, blonde 
alternating with brunette as far as practicable, 
though the predilection of the painter for the 
former is manifest Where all are beautiful, it 
is perhaps unwise to discriminate, and I intend 
no invidious comparisons in giving you briefly 
my impression of each ; for as one star differ- 



eth from another in glory, so each of these fair 
forms has its distinctive charm. One is struck 
by the entire unconsciousness of the group. 
With one exception, there is no appearance cf 
posing for effect. 

Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry, bears in 
her left hand two flutes. Her right rests upon 
a lyre. This blonde, one of Gotham's sweet- 
est singers, is apparently the youngest of the 
group. Hers is an immature beauty. There 
is less strength of character than a sweet in- 
nocence in her bearing, that makes her nearer 
Artemis than Aphrodite. 

Clio, laurel-crowned muse of history, is seated 
writing. A parchment scroll lies before her, 







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and the trumpet of fame. A brunette, whose 
face is cold and passionless, but wears an expres- 
sion of deep and earnest thought. 

Terpsichore, lover of the dance, is here en- 
gaged in her favorite amusement. The pen can 
do no justice to the ethereal lightness of the 
graceful figure, enveloped in the gauzy folds of 
its floating drapery. A green fillet, binding the 
luxuriant waves of yellow hair, lends a deeper 
glow to the cheek already flushed with pleasure ; 
the delicate limb is slightly raised, the rounded 
figure is redundant with life and motion, but 
there is nothing of the voluptuous abandon of 
the ballet. Perfect freedom and perfect mod- 
esty characterize this fairest of blondes. 



Melpomene, queen of tragedy, is represented 
by a queenly woman. She is very properly, in 
drapery and accessories, the most severely classic 
of the group. A tiara gives majesty to the noble 
brow. Her right hand holds a dagger near her 
heart ; but that heart, shining in those magnifi- 
cent eyes, would fail to nerve that hand to tragic 
deed. The dark hair and olive skin hint at a 
tropical origin. A Creole by birth, this superb 
woman is the wife of the Italian Consul at New 
York. 

Erato, muse of amatory verse, stands not 
alone. A cupid with a torch goes before 
her. A garland of roses and myrtle surrounds 
the forehead, and she bears a stringed instru- 






ment. She is perhaps the best exemplar of a 
purely physical type of beauty. Of her golden 
hair and soft blue eyes, poets would rave and 
painters dream. The West claims this model 
of a happy maidenhood. 

Calliope comes next. A roll in one hand 
bears the first lines of Homer's great epic, 
the other holds an ivory trumpet. A gold 
diadem gleams in her dark tresses. An elevated 
expression of pride and enthusiasm rests upon 
her face ; and you feel that so might she, like 
Miriam of old, have gone forth trumpet in hand, 
to greet a victorious father. 

Polyhymnia, muse of sacred song, is seated. 
Her head rests upon her hand. Her eyes are 



- 



heavenward turned. The dignity of matronly 
beauty is hers. That elevated expression, that 
stately pose, might have been Cornelia's. They 
tell of a good old stock. By the spell of her 
noble womanhood a hero was won, and a price- 
less dower she brought him in her kinship to 
the grandest martyr who gave his sweet young 
life for the Republic. 

Urania, with all her accessories, a starry 
circlet on her brow, her azure robe looped up 
with a crescent, celestial globe and all, is yet no 
star-gazer. Methinks the painter should have 
seen in the flashing eye, the spirited curve of 
the nostril, the commanding poise of the head, 
the freedom of a maiden whose high-bred 




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beauty spurns the labor he has imposed upon 
her as patron goddess of science. Was it that 
he dared but offer to such beauty the heavenly 
spheres ? 

Thalia, muse of comedy, gathers her robe 
across her fair bosom with one hand, holding in 
her left a grotesque mask. In her soft brown 
hair the simplest flowers are twined. Naivete 
and merry humor are beaming in her face ; but 
behind that, just a touch of weariness, that 
shows there is more in her life than the thought- 
less mirth of a gay young girl. Even as we 
gaze, the beautiful eyes are tremulous with 
tears, and infinite sadness seems to rest where 
a moment before all was infinite gladness. The 




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only face of all the group whose witchery 
depends entirely on expression, and is not 
enhanced by color, it will lose none of its 
charms in an engraving. Were I the Paris of 
critics, the golden apple should be hers. 

C. A. B. 

\Chicago Art Journal, July, 1869. — By Permission.] 




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